Some people get a cat to kill mice around their home, but they find out the cat won’t kill mice. Sometimes you can change this.
A cat won’t kill mice if it lacks exposure to mice early in life. However, some cats show a stronger hunting instinct than others, regardless of exposure. Energetic kittens with mothers that hunt are more likely to grow up and kill mice.
Why Your Cat Doesn’t Kill Mice
If your cat does not kill mice, it most likely was not exposed to mice and hunting before about six months old.
You might have heard that catching mice is instinctual for cats.
However, to learn to kill mice, a kitten needs someone to teach it about hunting mice and eating them. The ‘someone’ is usually the mother cat. However, another mentor cat or human caregiver can also fill the role of teacher.
According to animal researchers, cats have an inborn instinct to chase quickly moving objects, but killing and eating prey appear to be learned behaviors.
Kittens abandoned or separated early from their mothers are most likely to lack hunting skills. So if you adopt a tiny abandoned kitten, be prepared to train it to hunt or accept it as a non-hunter.
Cats that grow up living around rodents or other small animals sometimes learn to be friendly and playful with them, rather than aggressive. Cats can even be trained to fear rodents in some situations.
Research on Why Cats Don’t Catch Mice
A researcher named Yang in the 1930s discovered that killing mice is partly a learned behavior in felines, and they must learn early in life for the behavior to take hold reliably.
On the other hand, he also found that some cats have stronger innate hunting urges than others as kittens and adults.
In his study, he found that only 45 percent of kittens that were not exposed to rats before four months of age learned to kill the rodents later.
However, when kittens were raised with mothers that killed rats in their presence, 85 percent learned to kill rats before they were four months old.
This research clarifies that nature and nurture both play a role in cats killing mice.
What to Do if Your Cat Won’t Kill Mice
Don’t punish the cat! Unfortunately, some cats do not ever take up hunting, killing mice, or anything else. It’s just who they are, and punishment does nothing to change this and often causes new behavior problems.
If your cat does not learn to kill mice after some encouragement, don’t push it. Accept that this cat is not a hunter. Perhaps you can get a companion cat and make sure it learns hunting skills and has a good personality for killing mice. Sometimes a mentor cat can teach another cat how to hunt.
If you have a new cat or kitten, you can teach them about mice and often inspire the animal to give the sport a try and maybe get hooked.
But, don’t count on it if the animal is already over four to six months old. It might be too late, although it doesn’t hurt to expose an older cat to a mouse and see what happens.
Encourage Your Cat by Praising Hunting Behaviour
If your cat starts killing mice on its own, or you teach it how, the next steps are praising it and cleaning up the mess.
By praising the cat for its accomplishment, you can help reinforce the behavior. For example, give the cat a treat, pet it, or talk kindly to it, so it knows you appreciate the service.
Cats sometimes leave gifts in their owner’s shoes or on a pillow or the bathroom floor where you’ll soon discover them. Consider this a gift, clean up the mess, and tell the cat thank you if you want to encourage mice killing.
However, you don’t need to let the remains sit there for the cat to eat later. It’s best to clean-up the mess as soon as possible.
Cats Use All Their Sense to Catch Mice
Cats catch mice using all their senses. First, they use their nose to find a mouse scent. They also feel small vibrations in the air with their whiskers and hear tiny sounds with their independently rotating ears.
Cats also use their excellent low-light-level vision to see mice scurrying across the ground at dusk or a gopher head nudging its way under the soil surface before the sun comes up.
How to Encourage Your Cat to Kill Mice
If you get a kitten that is not exposed to mice before you get it, you might want to train it yourself.
Learning this skill takes exposure and a bit of practice, but the kitten also has an inborn instinct to chase mice. For example, kittens respond instinctively to the smell and presence of mice even before opening their eyes.
This trait developed over thousands of years that cats have earned their keep in human homes by controlling rodents for us.
You can help a kitten develop its natural mice killing inclinations in a couple of ways:
- Catch a mouse in a snap-type trap and show the dead rodent to the kitten soon after it’s caught. Encourage the cat to play with the mouse, and allow it to eat it if it wants to, but only after the cat has its vaccinations.
- Purchase a live ‘feeder mouse’ at a pet store, or catch one in a live animal trap and give it to the cat in a small, enclosed space like a bathroom or empty closet.
Be sure to block under the doors, so the mouse doesn’t escape. If the cat does not capture the mouse, you’ll have to catch and dispose of it, perhaps by giving it to someone with a mouse-eating iguana or snake.
- Play with the kitten using a fake mouse and other toys that stimulate it into stalking, lunging, and biting actions.
- Allow the cat to spend uninterrupted time in areas of the house where mice are a problem.
- Cats prefer to hunt at dusk and dawn in low-light conditions, and their eyes are adapted for this. Give the cat exposure to areas with mice overnight or during the evening and early morning to take advantage of this trait.
If you catch a mouse for your kitten to play with and possibly eat, do not use any mouse trap that involves poison bait. Instead, use a standard snapping trap, which kills the rodent quickly and efficiently.
Feeder mice are not available in all locations. Check with local pet stores if you have questions about the availability of these mice in your area. In many places, pet stores sell feeder mice for owners of snakes and other rodent-eating pets.
A cat or kitten can develop fast reflexes and enjoyment of hunting behaviors if you play with it actively using toys. Suitable toys include fake mice on a string, feather toys, pieces of yarn or shoelace, ping pong balls, and wrinkled balls of paper.
After training with play and exposure to a live or dead mouse, try leaving the cat in a room where mice are a problem.
Provide fresh water, a litter box, and a bowl of food. Doing this can be an excellent way to encourage a cat or kitten to try hunting.
In some cases, a cat that is a good hunter can teach the skill to another cat. Importing a mouser cat for a visit could help, as long as the cats get along.
Choosing a Cat for Mouse Hunting
Some individual cats have more aptitude for mouse catching than others. Some cats do not ever have an interest in hunting, and some are exceptional at the task.
To maximize the chances of taking home a good mouse catching cat or kitten, look for these qualities:
- Playful and friendly
- Quick reflexes
- Alert and responsive to sounds, sights, and smells
- Born in a rural area or location with mice present
- The mother cat is a hunter
- Kitten not weened early
Cat Breeds for Mouse Catching
Some cat breeds are known for their skills in mouse catching. Among the most popular mouser breeds are:
- American Shorthair
- Maine Coon
- Manx
- Persian
- Siamese
Some People Think Eating Mice Is Bad for Cats
Not everyone agrees that eating mice is okay for cats. You might want to talk to your veterinarian and their opinion.
Many people feel that if a cat is regularly treated for worms and other parasites and poison rodent baits are not in use, eating mice probably does more good for a cat than potential harm. It can also be a significant health benefit for the cat’s human family.
Cats have lived with humans for thousands of years precisely because they dispose of rodents that carry disease and damage property.
Due to their long history of mice killing, cats have undoubtedly evolved to eat these creatures without a problem most of the time.
Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they must primarily consume meat to stay alive and healthy.
Cats also have a high need for a dietary nutrient called taurine, an amino acid produced in human bodies but not in cats. Therefore, cats must consume significant amounts of taurine in their diet for good health.
Mice are high in taurine, and this might be part of why cats find them so delicious. Red meats like beef and liver are also high in this nutrient, and good-quality cat foods contain sufficient amounts.
Eating fresh mice may not be essential for a cat’s good health, but if they like to do it, and it keeps rodents at bay, it’s often a win-win situation.
Worms and Mice Eating
Cats can get diseases from the mice they eat. Parasitic worms are the most common problem.
If your cat eats mice, gophers, or other small prey, be sure to give it deworming treatment regularly. Ask your veterinarian for a recommendation.
Mice and Poison Bait Hazards
Another potential hazard when cats eat mice is if the mouse has eaten poison bait at the house where the cat lives or elsewhere in the neighborhood.
If you don’t use poison bait in your home, and your cat does not wander into neighbor’s yards, it’s unlikely your cat will encounter a poisoned mouse.
However, if you see any signs of poisoning in your pet, take it to a veterinarian immediately.
Mice and Fleas
Mice get fleas, and they can pass them on to cats. So if you have a mouse problem, keep an eye on your cat for fleas and take action immediately if you find them.
Diatomaceous earth is a non-toxic, inexpensive, natural powder that injures the bodies of soft insects like flees. It’s safe to dust on a cat or sprinkle on a carpet to fight a flea infestation. However, it’s best to tackle the problem at the source and get rid of the mice or other flea-harboring pests.
Why Some Cats Kill but Don’t Eat Mice
Many people notice their cat does not usually eat what it kills. The reason for this is that hunting urges and hunger is separate for cats.
Cats don’t necessarily hunt because they’re hungry. In fact, many well-fed cats still enjoy hunting and killing mice and other prey, and sometimes they like to eat them as well, even though they have plenty of cat food around.
Many well-fed cats still enjoy the hunt, but they lose interest after the rodent is dead.
Animal researchers have found that well-fed cats will stop eating to investigate prey animals and drag them back to their food dish. The desire to chase prey is often independent of a desire to eat the prey once it’s caught.
On the other hand, hungry cats are likely to hunt to stay alive. Still, it’s never necessary or a good idea to deprive a cat of food for more than a few hours to encourage it to hunt.
Many cat owners report their cats bringing gifts of dead mice, birds, or other prey. Mother cats take prey to their young kittens, so it makes sense that our pet cats sometimes treat us like baby family members and do the same.
If your cat is a good mouser but doesn’t eat what it kills, then you are left with the job of picking up the remains.
To be safe, use a disposable glove or a paper towel to pick up the dead mouse. Then throw it in an outdoor trash can, flush it down the toilet, or bury it in an 8-inch hole in the garden.
If you have a woodsy area in your yard, you can dump it on the ground for a scavenger to consume, like a raccoon, fox, or coyote.
Unfortunately, whether a cat eats a dead creature or not, there is likely to be some mess to clean up besides the dead body or body parts. Often, especially when a cat eats its prey, there is an unpleasant mess of blood and guts, which can quickly dry out and get stuck to the floor.
If this happens, soak the area with plain, warm, soapy water and then use a trowel to scrape it clean. Mop up with big rags and then throw them away in a plastic bag.
Why Cats Play with Prey
To humans, a cat toying with a live or dead animal can appear cruel. However, cats most likely engage in this behavior because the prey animals are not entirely helpless. They have teeth to bite and claws to scratch.
By batting a mouse around, a cat can first exhaust the animal to avoid getting hurt by it, and this is probably how the behavior came about.
Not all cats toy with prey, however. Some go in for the kill quickly, usually attacking the mouse at the back of the head and shaking it vigorously to break the neck and finish it off. In this case, the killing takes only seconds.
Rodent Control when Your Cat Won’t Kill Mice
If your beloved cat turns out not to be at all interested in mice catching, and you don’t want another cat, getting serious about other types of rodent control might be the only option.
Here are the basics of rodent control.
- Remove all mice food sources by putting foods in tightly closed containers. Vacuum and sweep up crumbs on the floor daily. Keep countertops spotless.
- Remove clutter and potential nesting material like rolls of thread, stacks of paper, piles of clothing, and cardboard boxes.
- Check for nests inside infrequently used drawers. Clean out nests and set traps if you find them.
- Close off all openings between the basement, attic, and outdoors and the inside of the house.
- Use traps to kill mice already in the house.
Snapping traps are inexpensive, but they can be a hassle to bait and set. They snap closed with high force, and it’s vital to set them up where animals and people won’t accidentally step on one. Peanut butter and kernels of dry corn work well as bait in these traps.
Poison traps work, but there is always a risk of hurting other animals that find the bait or eat a mouse that has consumed the toxins. Therefore, read and closely follow directions on poison bait traps if you decide to use them.
Sticky traps seem cruel to many people, myself included. But they are available.
Live animal traps catch live animals without hurting them, and you can buy small ones for mice. Once you catch the mouse, you’ll need to dispose of it, perhaps by offering it to a cat that eats mice.
